Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Just wanted to wish everyone a very wonderful and Blessed Thanksgiving. Let's remember to slow down this holiday season and take time to see the gifts we are truly thankful for; our faith, family, friends, health, wellness, and simplicity.

Monday, November 15, 2010

As I get older, I seem to want the warm pleasant weather of the fall season to last as long as it can. The girls and I went to our favorite park on Saturday and it couldn't of been more beautiful...

The late fall sunlight made for wonderful picture taking. They were both so tired at the end of the day that they went to bed early and I got to play with Photoshop. . .

One thing my dad always told me about taking pictures (and still does) is juxtaposition; pictures don't have to all be vertical or horizontal. Let your camera show people a different kind of view of the world.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

I bought Kelli Nina Perkin's book "Stitch alchemy" over a year ago. I love it, I go back to it time and time again for inspiration. In the book, she gives instructions for making papercloth. Not only do I love to make papercloth, the technique has become the basis for my embroidered collages. Layers of tissue paper, decorative paper, old paper...

One of the projects in Kelli's book is a papercloth bag. I decided six month ago that I wanted to make one. I designed the pears and embroidered them, then I started to procrastinate; I am not a seamstress and I will admit to being a little afraid of my sewing machine...

Well Monday I finally decided that I needed to complete this bag. I had to alter the original design (the one in the book) a bit mainly because I chose to put some quilt batting inbetween the papercloth and the cotton lining. This created alot of bulk so I improvised with some gross grain ribbon (I also forgot to put some kind of closure on the purse - I originally was going to use a magnetic clasp -oh well!).

This was an experiment, I'm hoping that I constructed the papercloth strong enough to withstand the abuse that I put my purses through. I did find this project very fun though and I'm considering making another one - although this time I think I will remember to put some kind of clasp or flap on it to close it up. I'm no Vera Bradley but I have to admit I really like the way it turned out! Have a Blessed week:)

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Now that I have a new computer, I can actually play with Photoshop a bit and not have to worry about the system crashing...

My dad has been a photographer for over 40 years. When I was a little girl, he had a dark room set up in the basement. Complete with enlarger, pans of chemicals, and this cool infer-red light bulb. He would quietly listen to Judy Collins while he developed his photos and my sister and I would delight in just sitting down there with him for hours. Even though he was trying to develop film, he never minded that we would sit down there and ask endless questions...

I love some of the filters in photoshop that allow my pictures to look like photos he would have taken and developed. There is great solace in remembering those quiet special times with a parent. Taking pictures of my family and the things I love takes me back to those special times over and over again. Have a Blessed week!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

I am so excited! For two reasons; first, I finished this Layer Cake Collage, and two, because I now have a new computer, it did not take me three hours to download these pictures from my camera, edit them in Photoshop and upload them to my blog. Normally this is a two day process, I would do all of the downloading and uploading one night, and actually post the second night. Not any more!...

The inspiration for this collage came from the fact that my daughter Alexa just had a birthday. It was during all of the birthday festivities that I drew the cake and started to embroider it. As I finished the cake I realized that our lives are alot like the layers of a cake. I think we just have to dive into those layers and love them all...

The cake is embroidered on a painted dryer sheet. It was embellished with old ledger paper (thanks to the wonderful paper I bought from Lee Weber!) and beads. I collaged the canvas with birthday wrapping paper (go figure!), tissue paper, old sheet music, and some of Alexa's school papers. I added some buttons for embellishement...

It's getting colder here in Ohio so we are getting ready for the long winter. My wish for everyone this week is that you love all of the different layers of your life!